Some conflict in relationships is inevitable but there are ways to handle it so it is not destructive to either the individuals or to the couple relationship.

Marriage and living together involves two people being together for up to seven days a week, year in, year out. There is a great deal of physical closeness and emotional interaction in a relationship, and eating and sleeping together and sharing a home can be quite stressful.

To make things more complex, they care for each other and have high expectations of how they wish to be treated by each other. Being human, they occasionally let each other down.

Instead of asking, "How can we avoid conflict?" try asking, "How can we manage not to hurt each other or our relationship when we have a fight?" and "How can we learn from an upset?" Avoiding conflict could mean avoiding important issues which it would be helpful to have sorted out.